Transcription:
Get Moving

Disclaimer: The medical health information provided during this program is for general information and educational purposes only, and is not a substitute for professional advice. None of the given information is for the purpose of diagnosis or treatment. Neither does this program serve as approval for any health product or brand.

This program aims to enhance your personal health and wellness through the adoption of healthy lifestyles and your prompt presentation to the health professional whenever you suspect that you are ill. For treatment and professional advice ensure you consult your physician.

Melanie Cole (Host): Do you know the difference between physical activity and exercise? Is gardening considered exercise? Is housecleaning? I mean, I think so, but we're going to find out today. Welcome to Say Yes to Good Health with Memorial Hospital. I'm Melanie Cole. And joining me is Mary Jane Clark. She's the Director of the west central Illinois AHEC located at Memorial Hospital in Carthage, Illinois.

She's a registered nurse with board certification in lifestyle medicine. And diplomat of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine, a Certified Health Education Specialist, and a Certified Health and Wellness coach. She's here with me today to talk about the benefits of moving and exercise. We have a lot to talk about. Mary Jane, thank you so much for joining us. Let's just start for the listeners. Some of them may not really realize how much exercise helps our bodies, our moods, our stress, all of it in terms of disease prevention. What does it mean to get regular physical activity?

Mary Jane Clark, MS, RN, CHES ®, CHWC ® Dip ACLM-Certified Lifestyle Medicine Nurse (Guest): Well, I will tell you that physical inactivity has been linked to more than 3 million preventable deaths every year globally. It is ranked as the fourth leading cause of death resulting from non-communicable diseases. So our physical inactivity definitely impacts our health and what we do every day. Of course, we're sedentary mostly.

It says that, you know, most of us spend more than 75% of our time sitting, especially if we have a job that requires us like to sit most of the day. Corporate jobs, lawyers, accountants, business office workers, human resources, you know, those things, we are often sitting.

Host: Talk show host, sitting behind a microphone. I'm right there with ya, you know, right there with you. So, so what does it do that's positive. So if inactivity really is linked all of these things, diabetes, heart disease and all these things you were discussing, what is activity linked to?

Mary Jane: Activity is linked to improved physical health. So even if you are overweight, the Obesity Society says that even if you are overweight, but you move regularly, you improve your overall physical health.

Host: Wow. So-

Mary Jane: That can reduce your risk. It can reduce your mortality, yourcardiovascular mortality. So, and they have linked studies that show that in lower physical fit individuals with a higher BMI, they still have a better physical outcome than those who have poor physical fitness and a normal BMI, which a BMI is, you know, the ratio that we have based on our weight and our height. So, it is definitely important for us to get moving.

Host: Well, it certainly is and preventing diabetes, which is a real problem in this country, heart disease, and maybe even some cancers we're learning more all the time. So people want to get started. And I always like to recommend that they start with some goals. If they're a new exerciser, can you tell us a little bit about goal setting, SMART goals, creating a plan. When you're working in your as a lifestyle medicine specialist, what do you people about setting those goals? that really helps to keep people motivated.

Mary Jane: Absolutely setting goals important. So a SMART goal is something that we can do. So we are going to have something that's measurable. If we are planning on movement. Obviously if you have some chronic conditions you'd want to first, your first goal might be to schedule an appointment with your provider to make sure it's safe for you to, what types of exercises would be safe for you to do?

Not everybody can start at the same level. So one, we have to figure out where we're going to start, what's feasible for us. If you haven't been moving at all, I recommend people start very small because if we start gung ho and go straight into doing heavy workouts, and then we can't move because our joints are sore and everything hurts, we're not going to stick with that. So we tell them to set goals that are measurable, attainable, realistic. And then time-sensitive. So what days are you going to this? What does that look like in your schedule? If you're starting smaller, you're going to walk or, you know, how do you incorporate movement into your overall day?

And some of us who are busy, I'm a busy mom. I'm active in other organizations. I work full time. So how do you balance that and get movement in there? Well, you can walk over lunch. You can walk during phone calls or conferences, you can take your, if you have a dog, you can take your dog for a walk.

You can move while you're watching TV instead of sitting. If there's things that you plan on doing, I know some people use that as a motivation unless if I'm on the treadmill, I can't watch the show. And you mentioned gardening at the beginning, which is fantastic. Doing yard work, raking leaves, shoveling snow getting out there and working, all of that is physical activity. It's movement. It's going to help improve your health.

Host: Well, all of those are really great ways. And then when you mentioned treadmill, I love to watch my shows on the treadmill. And I would rather do that than sit and watch them. Even if you walk slow, it keeps you moving and you can binge watch your favorite shows. And before you know it you've been on the treadmill an hour and you don't even realize it.

And so those are all great suggestions. So, how much, when we talk about physical activity and people hear, oh, the recommended amount, they hear this, but nobody really kind of knows what that is. What is the recommended amount of exercise that can actually give us benefits? Now I mean, you did say any amount is good.

Mary Jane: There is a recommended amount. Absolutely, adults should get least 150 minutes. So two hours and 30 minutes per week of moderate intensity aerobic physical activity or 75 minutes of vigorous intensity. And so some people are like, well, I don't understand what that is. So that's really about how you're able to communicate during activity.

If you're able to carry on a full conversation, you may not be at moderate intensity. If you're sharing a conversation with somebody and you don't feel like talking all the time, but you're at that level of exertion where you're kind of in the middle, that's where that moderate intensity is. And vigorous intensity is you're not able to carry on a conversation while you're exercising. So again, everybody's a little different. If you haven't been moving for a really long time. You walking a block down the street, may be you know, part of that moderate intensity, you know, if you're on your feet all day long, you may have to work a little harder to get your heart rate up where it needs to be in order to do that.

Host: So there's lot of different exercises we're talking about today, and going to go into some safety tips and, you know, different modes of things that people can try. But when you would think about the most important type of exercise. And certainly it depends on the person's goals, as you said, but you know, there's aerobic exercise, there's strength training, and there's functional exercise and balance and yoga.

There's so many different types of exercise now. you had to tell somebody new exercise, which one you'd start with, what would that be?

Mary Jane: Well, I would say if they haven't been doing anything, walking is usually a pretty safe activity for most people. If you haven't been exercising or moving, water aerobics or some kind of water movement is good. You know, around our area, it's kind of hard, but if there's an indoor pool they use even use that in some physical therapy types of things to increase movement because it's easy on the joints, that type of thing. So it kind of depends on the person and what they're interested in. Any movement that you do, that you can be consistent with, that you enjoy is going to be better than something that you absolutely hate.

So one, I would encourage people to kind of think about what they enjoy doing. We enjoy having dance parties in our kitchen. So again, that's how I incorporate physical activity in with my children. It's important to get them moving just as important as it is for me to move. And so that's kind of something that we do to incorporate physical activity there.

Like you said, as we get older, we need to be doing strength training. Our bones need that. And so strength training is important. You mentioned flexibility, yoga, stretching, all of those things are important for our body to continue having the level of movement that we want as we get as we age, I will say that. As I'm approaching, you know, some of those categories, I definitely feel the importance of continuing to be physically active.

Does that answer your question?

Host: It does. It totally does. And I think that you know, we're laying this out for people and it certainly is up to them, as we're saying, to get that going, to get it started. Do you have any advice about the best ways to track what we're doing? Because we're giving this starter pack here, we're getting people motivated, giving them ideas they might not have thought about. But what about tracking it to keep track of what we're doing? Whether we're getting those steps or the Do you have any advice on that?

Mary Jane: Well, absolutely. You mentioned steps. Okay. So there's tons of devices out there you know, smartwatches and all these things, you know, if you can spend on that's great. Most phones, if you have a smartphone, you can download an app for free. You know, the different brands also have like a health tracking app on there.

And so you can actually either log stuff that you're doing. There's things are free, like Fitness Pal. You can get on there and log, if you like to do that, you, if you're a pencil and paper kind of person, mark it in your planner you know, you're going to exercise and then how maybe how far you walked. A certain path that you're walking. There are great resources online for equating your steps to different activities.

So if you are interested in that, we can certainly get you some information on that. But there are resources out there that you can, you know, an hour of gardening equates to this many steps or this much physical activity. That type of thing. So there, there are apps you can use. There's pen and paper. You can write a journal. You can, you know, look at how many times you exercise or for the amount of time you can just write down the minutes. You know, if you're looking at getting to that 150 minutes, you know, write down how often and what days you actually participated in physical activity. Those are all ways that you can track.

Host: That's really what I do. When I'm on my treadmill. I write down how long I went and how far. And then if I go outside, I do the same. I have a path that I know how far it is. I write down how long it took me to do it. So writing it down, keeping a nice list. It also kind of feels good when you look at that list and you go, wow, did I really do that?

That's pretty cool. So there are so many ways and we have a lot more to talk about. So let's talk more about exercise. So, let's first into warning signs, because you mentioned people have to talk to their doctor and not everybody wants to go to their this. Okay. They want to and they want to start want to take a walk. Like you said, are there some warning signs?

If they start lifting five pound dumbbells, or taking a walk, stretching, you want to know about that say, know what? Maybe back off just a little bit.

Mary Jane: Oh yeah. Any kind of chest pain, difficulty definitely be those kind of you're doing way too much. Or you need to seek professional help. You know, we might sweat a little, but if it's perfuse which is a lot, you know, you would want to think about your exertion level while you're doing it, if you feel dizzy or lightheaded, you need to stop.

You know, and some people are diehard exercisers, and so they even try to exercise when they don't feel well. Of course, you know, exercise improves our ability to feel better. However, if we're you know, sick or something like that, we need to really take care of our body and listen to our body. If you have any kind of numbness or tingling, soreness is another sign that maybe, you know, some people say no pain, no gain. Well, if I end up sore after an activity, I'm not going to do it again. So we want people to move. And so the purpose of that is to start slowly, make sure that you don't have you know, a lot of joint pain, blurred vision, cause joint pain may identify that you either have incorrect form which I'm sure you can speak to you know, that you want to make sure you have good form when you're doing any kind of weightlifting. And that if you don't know how to do those things properly, that's where I would recommend a referral to someone who is either a personal trainer that can help you.

Sometimes employers offer opportunities for you to meet with somebody. Those are always good opportunities to kind of get some professional advice on how to get started. If you don't want to go to your doctor and you think you're pretty healthy for starting something, you don't have too many chronic conditions, obviously walking is one of the safest things that you can do.

And they can do that at all levels. If you haven't been up moving very much, you can even do chair exercises. You may have to start small and that's okay. It's just, it's good to start moving.

Host: Well, there's a lot online as well on Tik ToK and YouTube. You can watch a lot of people doing chair exercises. So a great way. You can follow along. There's a ton of videos now, us little bit about. A Tell about the area health education center at Memorial hospital and how you work with people there. What do you guys do?

Mary Jane: The area health education center is here to promote health careers. That's one of the things that we do as an AHEC center. We cover 17 counties in the west central side of the state. And so we're always looking for people who are interested. If you have a passion in physical activity, as a career, we would be the person you might reach out to for some career planning.

We also work to collaborate on community health initiatives as part of what we do here at the AHEC center. So we're working with community members to help engage individuals in physical activity, better nutrition, how we can get them connected with services here at Memorial Hospital. If they'd like to come in for a a Tanita scale which measures, you know, body composition, those kinds of things.

So we work with community groups like we have one in Carthage that's will then branch out to Hancock county on Keep Encouraging Yourself or Key to Good Health. So, you'll see different things out there related to improving your overall health. How important sleep is. How important laughter is in your day. I like to laugh. So, laughter is also something that releases stress and gets all those good endorphins going. And so, as part of our mission with AHEC is to collaborate, to improve community health. So those are some things that we kind of work on here at the AHEC office.

Host: Thanks telling us about that. What a great place. You know, this is the field now, Mary Jane, we're all about prevention and we're really looking to stave off disease, but also exercise isn't just that it's something that makes you feel better than you did before you do it. And I, by the way, don't mind being a little sore, when I my garden for the first time year, bending over putting the seeds of the wow. The back of my thighs feels it every single

Mary Jane: Yes.

Host: so many years. So now we're about all these different exercises, weight training and some for just a minute.

But motivation be the biggest obstacle to exercise. You're such an upbeat person, Mary Jane, do you have for people on ways to keep motivating themselves? And the fact is, what I've learned in my this field is that something that makes you feel. And gets feeling energized you lose weight, or you notice your waistline's a little littler, then you have that But until those seen or felt, sometimes hard to keep doing it.

Mary Jane: Oh, absolutely. What they have found is that once people are up and moving, they finish. So, sometimes just the motivation is getting up and moving, which sometimes is challenging. Like you said, our motivation. And that's where you need to know a little bit about yourself. Am I somebody that would benefit from an accountability buddy?

You know, do I need to find a partner? And that's the only way I'm going to get out of bed in the morning is if I have somebody to exercise with me or have a walk in the evening with, and if I have that as somebody to keep me motivated or we keep each other motivated. So some of us are, you know, better at working out on our own and just need a little encouragement. So it kind of depends on, on each individual person, but like you said, the hardest part is getting started. And we can find all kinds of excuses not to get started. You know, I'm too busy, this has too much. But like you said, once you feel the benefits of that, it's like, yeah, I'm doing this for me.

This is great. And you know, we, I often equate individuals with putting their own oxygen mask on, like you do in an airplane. You know, they tell you to put your own oxygen mask on first, before you can take care of other people. And that's kinda what physical activity does for us. You know, we sleep better.

We can focus better. Our productivity increases at work. At home we feel more energized. We can do more things than what we could do before. Benefits, like you said, your wasteland getting smaller. That's always a great benefit for some of us. And so that motivates us. And so kind of depends on the person, what we're looking for in a motivation.

Do we need an accountability buddy? Do we not, you know, can we just schedule it into our day? And then it happens. So again, looking at what is going to work for you is important. I can have a gym membership online, plan to do those things, but I do much better if I have somebody to go take a walk with. So it just depends on the person.

Host: It does. And it depends on whether you're somebody, like you say that likes to work out alone or any of those things. And you know, you and I are very like-minded with the mask thing, because I've been saying for years and especially us women, we have to take care of ourselves, or we cannot care for our loved ones and we are the caregivers of society.

Are we not? So we have to find a way in women, heart disease, the number one killer of women, it's not breast cancer, it's heart disease and exercise, physical activity. All of those things can help us. And besides the fact of stress, so we only have a few minutes left here, Mary Jane. I'd like you to speak to stress reduction through physical activity, exercise, and you can touch on yoga and meditation.

These are all considered in the realm of physical movement activity, things that we're doing to calm our minds and help us. Wrap it up. Give me your best advice on all of those things. It's a lot.

Mary Jane: Okay. You are absolutely correct. So physical activity does increase our endorphins in our body and those feel good neuro-transmitters. And so you'll, you may refer to it, sometimes when people are exercising as the runner's high, but it really does give you those good endorphins. It has an impact on our stress and how we handle stress.

Like you said, it's meditation in motion. You know, some people pray why they walk, you know, or meditate while they walk or think about something positive. So again it's a way to focus yourself and remain calm. It also improves your mood. And so exercise can really be the key for people who have stressful lives.

I mean, oftentimes when you know, we talk to those students that might be going into med school, you know, what do you do to take care of stress? Because oftentimes they run, you know, they go and take a break and that is helpful for releasing daily tension. And sometimes it's just having some non screen time and that helps as well, but definitely physical activity is good for that.

Host: It sure as heck is. And I personally listeners, like audio books, if you're somebody that walks and I love to walk for a long time and downloading from my library for free. Audio books really helps cause you just listen to a book and walk as long as you want. So these have been great pieces of advice, Mary Jane, you're an excellent guest. I really appreciate all the help you've given us today. And thank you again for joining us. For more health tips like you heard here, or to schedule an appointment with Mary Jane Clark, please visit our website at mhtlc.org. That wraps up this episode of Say Yes to Good Health with Memorial Hospital.

I'd like to thank our audience and invite you to download subscribe, rate, and review on Apple podcast, Spotify and Google podcast. And if you found this information informative, share with your friends and family, because we are learning from the experts at Memorial Hospital together. I'm Melanie Cole.

Disclaimer: The medical health information provided during this program is for general information and educational purposes only, and is not a substitute for professional advice. None of the given information is for the purpose of diagnosis or treatment. Neither does this program serve as approval for any health product or brand.

This program aims to enhance your personal health and wellness through the adoption of healthy lifestyles and your prompt presentation to the health professional whenever you suspect that you are ill. For treatment and professional advice ensure you consult your physician.